Russian Court imposes Fine on Google for violating Data Policy

Snehal Upadhyay

Published on: August 2, 2021, at 01:03 PM

The Tagansky District Court of Moscow has directed a fine of 3 million rubles on Google alleging violation of Russia’s new Data Protection Law.

The new data policy of Russia validates the storage of personal data of Russian users on servers in Russia.

This law is known as the Federal Law on Activities of Foreign Persons in the Information and Telecommunication Network Internet in the Territory of the Russian Federation.

This law was implemented on 1st July 2021.

Article 10(4) requires that all recording, systematization, accumulation, storage, clarification and extraction of personal data of Russian nationals should be collected with the use of databases located in the territory itself.

If somebody is seen violating these rules then the Russian state regulator, Roskomnadzor, has the authority to take action such as partially or completely blocking the internet company within the territory of Russia, imposing restrictions on money transfers to the company from Russian individuals and legal entities, forbidding the company from collecting Russian users’ personal data and restricting cross-border transfers to the company from Russia.

The Tagansky District Court registered a protocol against WhatsApp on Friday.

The protocol was issued for the same offence as of Google, it imposed the penalty of 6 million rubles following Part 8 of Article 13.11 of the Administrative Offenses Code alleging its repeated failures in following the policy. The fine may go up to 18 million rubles.

This action taken against Google and WhatsApp is a part of the larger crackdown on the social media companies.

Last week, the Tagansky District Court imposed a fine on Facebook, Twitter and Telegram notwithstanding to delete illegal content. Twitter has already been placed on a punitive slowdown since March for its repeated failure to take down illegal content.

Read more: Russia opens case against WhatsApp for violating Personal Data Law

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